The Golden Age of Radio—the 1920s through the 1950s—is often called the “theater of the mind.” Before that, entertainment meant going to a theater: from the ancient stone rows of Athens’s Theatre of Dionysus to the velvet seats of Ford’s Theatre in Washington. People left their homes to become part of a communal audience. The introduction of radio would change all that. From breaking news to weather forecasts, from aviation safety to shipping navigation, it reshaped everyday life—and, most magically of all, it revolutionized how we were entertained. For the first time in history, plays, concerts, comedies, and ghost stories could wander into any home via the airwaves. Even Christmas itself could waft in and brighten a dark December night.
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Fittingly, the first faint notes of that miracle sounded at Christmastime—on a quiet December night in 1906.Reginald Fessenden was a Canadian scientist who came to the United States to work with the best of the best. After stints at Edison and Westinghouse, Fessenden co-founded the National Electric Signaling Company and built a towering station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts, determined to send the human voice across the Atlantic.
